Starbucks, meet Disney: Coffee giant to open in amusement parks

Mickey's Fun Wheel and the California Screamin' roller coaster at Disney California Adventure Park, which will be the first of six Disney parks to host a Starbucks cafe.

Mickey's Fun Wheel and the California Screamin' roller coaster at Disney California Adventure Park, which will be the first of six Disney parks to host a Starbucks cafe. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Tiffany Hsu

Disney this summer will truly become the happiest place on Earth for Starbucks devotees, who will no longer have to suffer caffeine withdrawal when they visit some of the mouse-eared amusement parks.

In June, the first of six Starbucks cafes will open at Anaheim’s Disney California Adventure in the park’s Fiddle, Fifer & Practical Café on Buena Vista Street. In keeping with the café’s 1920’s Los Angeles vibe, Starbucks baristas will be clad in appropriate vintage attire.

The Starbucks shop will serve coffee and espresso drinks, Frappuccinos and the breakfast sandwiches and pastries served at the rest of the chain’s locations. But because the Magical Kingdom is playing host, the store will also have other items, including Disney's own desserts.

The store will feature dark wood and stained glass windows, with the Fiddler, Fifer and Practical name splashed across the windows. Vertical plaques nearby will feature the Starbucks name, but not the company’s circular logo.

More than a hundred outside companies already have a presence in Disney’s theme parks. Some, such as Rainforest Café and Planet Hollywood, have physical storefronts inside the grounds. Ghirardelli will have a shop in California Adventure this spring.

But it’ll be the first time Starbucks will exist inside a Disney park, though the company has a café in Disney Village at Disneyland Paris.

Next up: Starbucks branches in neighboring Disneyland Park as well as Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., which includes the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom parks.

The Seattle coffee giant hasn’t only been expanding into fantasyland this year. In February, Starbucks Coffee Co. said it began serving its brews in the skies, where Alaska Airlines passengers can now get Starbucks-branded coffee free of charge.